Perfume Review & Musings Archives

 Pink Sugar by Aquolina is one of the most effective comfort fragrances in the world. I stand by this statement which I verify 10 years on. It is a compliment-getter. It is foody and obvious, yet subtle at the...

Cèdre et Oranger (Cedar Tree & Orange Tree) by L'Occitane en Provence is the new masculine addition to the Collection de Grasse. It is said to reproduce the sensation of a light breeze blowing through trees... ...

 Grey Flower by Reiss is one of the two debut perfumes by the fashion label, which are pretending only in appearance to abide by the conventional rules of launching a her-and-him duo. I am going slowly through new perfumes...

Spezie dé Medici by I Profumi di Firenze, a niche fragrance house from Florence in Italy is not meant to be a Christmas perfume - unlike Nuit de Noël by Caron, or Parfum Sacré by Caron - but it...

Continuing boldly our exploration of recent & new rose perfumes market-wide (here too), today I turn to the latest from masstige standard-bearer The Body Shop, and to White Musk Smoky Rose in particular, which they released in two concentrations, eau de toilette and...

Invictus is from the start an intricate, intense and pushed far along association of "new freshness" and ambergris. The sensation it creates is animalic, sweaty but also fruity; many male fragrances nowadays add that fruity note which pushes them...

  By Chantal-Hélène Wagner Yesterday, I started wondering about the endless inspiration that the rose is in perfumery. My first impression of Rose Velours by Van Cleef & Arpels is drawn from a succession of detailed olfactory motifs. I perceive unfolding,...

The virgen of Pomato, Cuzco school, Peru, 18th century By Chantal-Hélène WagnerThe perfume of rose is one of the most idealized notes of perfumery. It can and does pretend to the status of holygrail of olfactory expectations and sensations in...

   Modern Muse is the new fragrance creation for women by Estée Lauder and one they see as "the most important fragrance moment we’ve had in a decade,” according to Women's Wear Daily. The way we interpret this is to think that it...

October 2013 is National Energy Awareness Month in the US and there is a French perfume which matches the theme. In 2011, Parisian niche brand Histoires de Parfums, meaning "Stories of Perfumes", under the creative stewardship of Gerald Ghislain...

The photographic model for the Madonne aux Lys by Mucha Serge Lutens has done a lily fragrance before called Un Lys. His doing a second one therefore fulfills no library referencing purposes as in, "Come to think of it,...

Smelling L'Acquarossa for the first time in principle, I realize I smelled it on a passer-by, just the other day. I had noticed a bold, fruity perfume which I identified after a while as Deci-Delà by Nina Ricci (1994)....

La Collection de Grasse is a new library of four scents by l'Occitane inspired by the birthplace of modern perfumery, Grasse in the south of France. While Paris is the fashion and style inspiration for the perfume industry, Grasse...

 One of the reasons I personally like to review designer perfumes is that it is an exercise in perception of subtle shifts, already impacted by trend-thinking and meant to carry on major societal-olfactory trends futher. It is also interesting...